// Our Self Shot Engagement Photos, Part 2

Thanks for making us feel so good about attempting to shoot our own engagement pictures on film! We were really happy with the outcome, even the defect/out of focus ones as I said. We're looking forward to trying it again soon, but luckily we were able to narrow it down to one image for our Save The Dates. I'll be sure to share those once they arrive in the mail!

Until then, here is the second round of images! Oh, and we'll have a fun little announcement soon sort of regarding these photos! (You'll have to excuse Mike's silly expression in some of these. I always manage to catch him mid-scowl or something! He's not exactly a super fan of having his photo taken!) These were all shot on the farm where we're getting married in October!

PS; Because someone asked in the last engagement photo post, there was no Photoshop involved in these photos! These are straight from the lab. That's the magic of film! Colors and bokeh like you could only dream of with digital. And the requested clothing details are: Forever 21 cardigan, Ross dress (altered by me), Etsy brooch. Mike is wearing a Levi's shirt and Banana Republic jeans! (Mike wears a titanium "engagement" ring that I gave him last year. It's engraved with our song on the inside.)

Our Self-Shot Engagement Photos

I feel like I should start off this post with a giant disclaimer: I'm a mega type A personality, and a bit of a control freak when it comes to creative endeavors. If it's going to have my name on it, I like it to look just-so. Even if it's not perfect, I want to be able to take the blame for it and not get upset at anyone else (Hence the self-done hair cuts, dye jobs, etc). It's hard to relinquish control of something so special to someone else. Also, we're trying to save money for the wedding. Not to mention we have a very specific style that we go for in photos and the only photographers with a similar aesthetic in town are entirely out of our budget. So what's a couple to do? How about shoot our own! We have some wonderful friends with awesome photo-ability, but we wanted to give this a shot first. Mainly to just see if we could pull it off!

We were really taking a leap of faith by shooting these ourselves on film. Between the old F4 we were using, to the self timer and trying to focus just right, it was really a shot in the dark. We only shot 2 rolls of film because it's incredibly costly to have developed at the lab we use. It was sort of a "trial" run because we needed some photos for our Save The Dates. Well, we finally got the scans back yesterday and we were thoroughly pleased! Some of the photos were way out of focus, or just poorly executed, but we still loved them. That's one thing I really adore about film... you learn to love the imperfections.  There aren't a ton of "together" photos (uh, even though that's what engagement photos are all about) because we were really scared about nailing them, but we will definitely take more! You'll notice the ones that are slightly out of focus, too... but we don't mind. We ended up with 57 usable and lovely images out of the 72 that we shot... not bad for our first go! I thought I'd share some of them with you today. Don't worry, I won't share all 57! But I'm totally going to be that girl and break them up in a handful of posts over the next couple of weeks. (I know, no one cares about my wedding as much as I do, but I'd love to share them! If they're not your thing, I won't be offended if you just skip over!)

I'll share more in a few days! We went to our actual wedding location to shoot some, too!
xx

One Year Ago

One year ago today I was strolling along the riverwalk in Wilmington, North Carolina with Mike, Chris and Susannah after a fun night of downtown bar hopping and hijinx. We stumbled upon the most beautiful seating area with canopied Bradford Pear trees and twinklelights galore. I had no idea that in just a few short minutes Mike would ask me the biggest question of my life (to date!).

I can't believe we've already been engaged a year! I still pinch myself daily for landing such a wonderful fella and being able to share such a beautiful moment with two of our closest friends. The fact that they were in on it the whole time and were able to snap some in-the-moment pictures was the best. That photo is still my lock screen on my iPhone, and there it shall remain!

I can't picture a more perfect place to have experienced that.

The past year has been a crazy one. That goes without saying. From moving to Nashville, starting our own small business, adopting a kitty (to our ever-growing brood) and then beginning our adventure with a toddler (just to name a few!)... it's been full to the brim with adventure. Maybe an "engage-aversary" (?!) is a silly thing to acknowledge, but to know that I'm just 7 months away (tomorrow!) from taking his last name and starting the next chapter, well, it's pretty darn exciting. Too bad we haven't really started much planning yet!

To Mike --

Thanks for choosing to spend your life with me. And to help raise your sweet little always-on-the-go son. Thanks for always indulging my silly cravings (and fulfilling them), for making me coffee each and every morning even though I rarely finish a single cup, and for staying with me even though I'm not the biggest fan of your favorite food (pizza). And maybe most of all, thanks for letting me put my freezing cold feet on you every single night to warm them up. Seriously. I should invest in some socks. You're kind of the bee's knees.

March 5, 2011 will forever be one of my favorite days. I'm looking forward to many, many more of those!

Thanks for indulging me! xo

PS; If you want to read our engagement post (and see our ultra cheesy "remake" ha!), feel free to check it out! Here's Mike's take on the day and here's a post from Susannah's perspective! We're totally blessed to have shared that day with such special people! Not gonna lie, I cried reading SB's recap just now!